


sunflower boy

by stilljunhui (acyria)



Category: SF9 (Band)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Flower Shop, Hwiyoung is the florist, M/M, amazing what a work of art, florist au because likening Taeyang to sun-related things will never get old, have u heard his hair is no longer blond tho, mainly Hwitae, minor!! Jaeseong
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-01-02
Updated: 2017-01-02
Packaged: 2018-09-14 08:10:56
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,625
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9170140
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/acyria/pseuds/stilljunhui
Summary: There’s no way this super handsome customer kept failing his dates.





	

**Author's Note:**

> cross-posted on AFF

Kim Hwiyoung usually has very peaceful days working as a florist. Mainly because people don’t really chance upon the small little flower shop on 9th street, and he was perfectly fine with that. Sure, he likes the flowers and all, but talking to all the people was more of Inseong’s thing, maybe even Jaeyoon. Unfortunately, the latter two were away for some “business matters” (read: date trip to Jeju, _as if Hwiyoung doesn’t know_ ) leaving the youngest member of their flower shop team alone. It was already his second day manning the shop when the bell chime by the door sounded. 

Hwiyoung looked up from fixing his basket of peonies, ready to greet the customer, but the words fall short on his lips. 

He would like to say that he doesn’t get affected that easily and that it just happened to be a moment of weakness, but he knows that would just be one big lie. The boy who entered the shop had blond hair, like himself, with a bright smile plastered on his face. If he were a flower, Hwiyoung caught himself thinking, he would probably be a sunflower. Big, bright, and yellow. Definitely something to do with the sun. Anything to do with the sun, really. 

“Hello!” the customer greeted first, much to Hwiyoung’s embarrassment as he continued to be distracted by the boy’s pearly white teeth— who gets distracted by teeth, honestly? “Is this Inseong’s store?”

Hwiyoung shook himself back to reality and nods, tongue-tied and cursing himself because of it, “it is. He’s not here though.”

“Oh, that’s fine, just tell him Taeyang dropped by then. I’m looking for a nice bouquet of flowers.”

Taeyang. It’s like his family knew he was meant to shine brighter than anything Hwiyoung has ever laid his eyes upon.

“Uhm, any flowers in particular?”

“I don’t really know much about flowers, so I’ll let you decide.”

“What’s the occasion?” 

“First date.”

The smile on his face was still blinding as Hwiyoung forced himself to look away and head towards the back of the store. A date. Of course. With a face like that, Taeyang probably doesn’t have a trouble at all with dates. Probably has a whole line of people falling at his feet. Good for him. Good for his date, too. Lucky lucky lucky. Him, or the date? Hwiyoung doesn’t know, his thoughts a bit too pre-occupied by the customer to really focus on fixing a bouquet up.

In the end, Hwiyoung settles for a bouquet of soft pink roses and white peonies, deeming it pretty enough for a first date. Girls usually liked soft pastel colours anyway, right? Actually… wasTaeyang’s date even a girl? 

“Ah,” Hwiyoung muttered to himself, “I’m getting ahead of myself.”

Plastering a polite smile on his face, Hwiyoung turned and walked back to the store counter.

“Would this be alright?”

“Looks perfect!” Cue another bright, bright smile. “How much?”

Hwiyoung named a price, keeping his eyes anywhere but on the face in front of him. A quick transaction later, and Taeyang soon had his back turned to Hwiyoung. The latter watched as Taeyang headed out the door, thinking that Taeyang had managed to take his heart with him as he exited— which was a terribly sappy thing to think about, he should really stop with the romance dramas— when Taeyang stopped and turned around.

“I didn’t get your name,” he said.

“Hwiyoung. It’s Hwiyoung,” came the soft and shocked reply.

“Alright,” Taeyang smiled brighter and Hwiyoung swore his heart did _not_ skip a beat because Taeyang was a _customer_ who had a _date_ , for crying out loud. “See you then, Hwiyoung!”

The latter smiles and waves despite his thoughts, mentally blaming Inseong for all of this and making sure the older boy knew all about it when they returned.

 

____________________________________________________

 

Hwiyoung is alone again the next day.

Well, at least he was alone until Taeyang walked into the store.

“Hi, Hwiyoung!” the personification of sunshine said as he entered the store, dressed just as nicely as yesterday. He settled himself next to the counter, grinning at the still dumbfounded Hwiyoung. “One bouquet please.”

Hwiyoung blinks himself out of the thoughts racing in his head— ranging from _‘wow Taeyang looks good today too’_ to _‘he needs another bouquet’_ to _‘what do you mean he has another date it’s only been a day what the hell’_ and finally back to _‘wow he looks really good’._

“First date went well?” He asked, attempting small talk so things won’t feel that awkward.

Taeyang shrugged, “no, actually. First date again. The girl I met yesterday liked the flowers, so I thought maybe it would be a good way to start this one too.”

Okay, what?

“What?” Hwiyoung voiced out eventually. 

Taeyang grinned sheepishly, “I have bad luck with dates, so this happens a lot. I hope you don’t mind if I end up frequenting this store.”

Hwiyoung doesn’t mind his presence one bit, but he chooses to keep quiet about that. Not trusting his mouth around such a handsome figure, he decides to head over and begin fixing up a new bouquet. He wasn’t sure whether he should just make the same one from yesterday but soon decides against it, settling for purple calla lilies and white carnations. Still a soft colour palette, so it should still be good.

“Here you go,” Hwiyoung announced, thrusting the flowers over to a joyful Taeyang.

He asked about the price again and Hwiyoung rang up a number as he tried his best not to spout more questions about Taeyang’s unfortunate predicament.

“Thanks again, Hwiyoung!” Taeyang said as he was headed out the door. Hwiyoung gave him another small wave. 

 

____________________________________________________

 

“Oh, Taeyang?” Inseong asked as he clipped a few thorns off their fresh delivery of roses. 

Hwiyoung grunted in reply. It’s been a week since Taeyang’s visit, which also meant Inseong and Jaeyoon were back around the store (sunkissed and way too happy about it), which was great. Hwiyoung was no longer alone in the store. He could leave the counter to the two older boys and tend to his flowers in peace. What wasn’t great, however, was how it’s been a week and Hwiyoung still has yet to forget about Taeyang, sunshine boy supreme. 

Maybe it had something to do with how Taeyang came into the store _every single day_ after the first day.

Maybe it had something to do with how each time he entered it was with _that_ smile, matched with shining eyes, as he asks for a bouquet of flowers. The third time he came in, Hwiyoung tentatively tried to start small talk by lightly asking if his recent date went well,  and whether or not they were going out that day— which proved to be a terrible idea. Apparently, Taeyang needed a bouquet for _another_ first date.

Hwiyoung tried not to gawk, but Taeyang waved him off with a chuckle.

“It’s pretty embarrassing, yeah,” Taeyang had said, smile faltering just by a little bit. “But I’ve always had bad luck with these things. My friends are losing their minds trying to set me up. They like the flowers though, so that’s something at least.”

Each visit was exactly the same— he’d enter the store, bright and enthusiastic and absolutely thrilled at the idea of another date. Hwiyoung would whip up a bouquet of soft looking flowers. Sometimes he would even initiate small talk, much to Hwiyoung’s mixed feelings of delight (because Taeyang’s still hella good looking) and sadness (because he still has a date and _it’s not Hwiyoung_ ). Once, Hwiyoung openly complained about how Inseong and Jaeyoon always go on date trips and leave him in the store alone. Taeyang, in turn, complained about his bad luck.

Hwiyoung shook his head at the memory; apparently Taeyang always manages to mess up his dates, and things just don’t turn out well enough for a second date. So he has first dates, lots of em. He had just mentioned Taeyang’s visits to Inseong when a loud laugh sounded from beside them.

“Taeyang’s still going on dates?” Jaeyoon said with a snort once he was done laughing. “Seriously?”

Inseong grinned, “cut him some slack, you know how the kid is.”

Hwiyoung stared back and forth between the two of them, clearly out of the loop, and clearly annoyed by it. They had an extremely good looking friend all this time, and nobody bothered to introduce Taeyang to him? Really? Okay, well, admittedly it was probably because Taeyang was straight and his dates were with countless beautiful women, and Hwiyoung was none of those. Still, it didn’t hurt to have good looking friends, right? Right.

“Looking for true love,” Jaeyoon said, rolling his eyes. “Yeah, because he’ll find those in all the girls Youngbin and the rest are trying to put him up with. Don’t they know by now?”

Inseong shrugged, “Taeyang’s not shy about being bi, I doubt they’re dumb enough to set him up with _only_ girls.”

Wait, back up.

“Come again?” Hwiyoung blurted out suddenly, reminding the other two of his presence in the store.

“Oh, is our baby Hwiyoung interested?” Inseong asked teasingly, catching on Hwiyoung’s sudden interest immediately, causing the other to flush. “Don’t worry, he’ll probably be around again today. About time, I’ve been telling him to visit for weeks now but he doesn’t and—“

Hwiyoung tuned him out the moment the bell chime rang, seemingly louder than before, and a familiar head of bright blond hair came into view.

Jaeyoon tutted, “speak of the devil.”

“Hi, Hwiyoung!” Taeyang greeted, smile dazzling. It took him a few seconds of looking around the store to spot the other two figures, as a look of pleasant surprise dawned on his face. “Inseong! Jaeyoon! You’re back! How was the Jeju date trip? Hwiyoungie here was complaining and—“

Hwiyoung lightly nudged him with his elbow, “I was not complaining.”

“You totally were.”

“I wasn’t!”

“You were.”

“Alright, kids,” Jaeyoon interjected with a knowing grin. “Stop with the flirting, now.”

Inseong nodded along, “yeah, Taeyang and _Hwiyoungie_.”

“We weren’t—“ the two blonds began to say, then abruptly shut up. It was Taeyang who mustered up the guts to speak again first, face just the barest hint of pink.

Taeyang smiled as if what happened didn’t just happen and began chatting up Inseong about the trip. On the other hand, Hwiyoung decided to ignore Jaeyoon’s little quip and Inseong’s obvious teasing in favour of  silently tending to the new bouquet the other boy was bound to order. He’s gone through a lot of combinations already, so Hwiyoung was pretty much out of ideas at this point. Hopefully Taeyang won’t notice if he went ahead and re-used the rose and peony one—

“Hwiyoung, are you preparing the bouquet already?” Inseong asked, receiving a nod from the younger boy.

Taeyang chuckled, “guess he should be used to it by now.”

“You know,” Jaeyoon began to say, looking back and forth between the two blonds. “Tae, why don’t you try dating Hwiyoung? Last I heard, Hwiyoung’s single and also a chic yet flaming homosexual.”

“I, uhm,” Taeyang stuttered out while Hwiyoung was desperately trying to whack Jaeyoon but was failing because Inseong was in the way, laughing and being annoying, as per usual.

Hwiyoung groaned, “ignore them, please.”

Taeyang nodded slowly, “yeah, yeah okay. Anyways, I should get going, then. Thanks for the flowers!”

“Hey, wait, you haven’t paid!” Jaeyoon called out, but Taeyang was out the door in a flash.

“You guys are terrible,” Hwiyoung started to say, pouting just a little. “The absolutely worst. I don’t know why I agreed to work here.”

Inseong mere smiled back in return, eyes sparkling with a mischievous glint that usually meant trouble.

“You’ll thank us one day, Hwiyoung.”

 

____________________________________________________

Hwiyoung was pretty sure he wasn’t thanking Inseong anytime soon. It’s only been three days since they came back, when suddenly both of them just so _happened_ to call in sick for the day, leaving him alone in the store again. The younger boy was positive he was going to come home and see some sappy sweet photo about their date together posted online, complete with a sickening caption and a bunch of planned out comments. 

Taeyang, surprisingly, hasn’t visited the store in those three days.

He wasn’t sure what that meant— did his last date go well? Does that mean he wouldn’t need first date bouquets anymore? For some reason, thinking about that possibility made something in his heart ache a little, but just a little. Sure, he had developed a tiny (read: not tiny at all) crush on Taeyang in the past week that he’s been around, but that was no reason to wish him bad luck when it came to his romantic endeavours.

Those were his thoughts until the door swung open to reveal Taeyang. Still dressed really well, which must have meant he had a date. Except his smile wasn’t as bright as the first time and there was a subtle blush on his cheeks that showed a sort of nervous air around him. Still, Hwiyoung waved in greeting as the other boy strode to the counter.

“One bouquet,” Taeyang said, resting both hands on the counter and flashing Hwiyoung a smile.

Hwiyoung returned the smile with a wave, “welcome back. Did the last date go well? I mean, you weren’t around for a while.”

Taeyang shook his head, “no, but I’m really hoping this next one will.”

“I see,” Hwiyoung tried to hide the small feeling of relief as he nodded. “Hope this one will, then.”

He ties up a bunch of sunflowers this time, which was something he’s been meaning to do but they didn’t have any in stock. Admittedly, it wasn’t the usual choice for a bouquet, but it was nice. It suited Taeyang well, and hopefully his date would see that too. To further emphasize on all things bright and yellow, Hwiyoung throws in yellow carnations.

“Something different, I guess,” Hwiyoung explained as he handed it over.

“Still looks great,” Taeyang replied with a look of awe, carefully taking the bundle of flowers and staring at it as if it blinded him. Maybe it did.

Hwiyoung listed off a price again, waiting as Taeyang made a move to take his wallet out. The latter takes the amount of money needed and places it on the counter, along with two other pieces of paper.

It takes a few seconds for Hwiyoung’s mind to process he was staring at paper bills and two movie tickets.

“Uhm,” Taeyang cleared his throat, looking awkward for the first time ever. Tentatively, he handed over the bouquet of flowers to Hwiyoung. “So, I was giving what Jaeyoon said some thought. I have a bit of a confession to make, too.”

Hwiyoung, still frozen in shock, let out a small noise in response.

Taeyang flushed, “anyway, after the first few first dates I had I actually stopped having them. I still visited and bought flowers thought, because— because they were nice. You’re nice, and coming here was nice, and even this one right here is nice so I was— I was wondering— I mean, I know I have bad luck with this, but—“

“Yes,” Hwiyoung blurted out, “quit the stammering because _yes_. Whatever it is, yes.”

“Oh.”

Taeyang’s smile was blinding, more so than the harsh yellow flowers he held in his hands, which Hwiyoung eventually took. This was nice. Very nice. He could get used to this. The latter stared at the bouquet in his arms, the feeling prior giving it to Taeyang and his current emotions being complete opposites. Okay, maybe he has to thank Inseong after all. Maybe Jaeyoon, too. Not that he’d actually tell them.

**Author's Note:**

> wahhhh I didn't think this would end up this long but after a few days it's finally done!!!
> 
> If you like my work and would like to support me, please consider buying me coffee! https://ko-fi.com/stilljunhui


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